SpaceX Starship was run through a wet dress rehearsal for launch. Watch amazing drone view of the frosty rocket as it was filled with over 10 million pounds of propellant. Credit: Space.com | footage

SpaceX pulled off its “chopsticks” catch of a Super Heavy rocket booster but lost the Starship spacecraft on Thursday during the vehicle’s seventh uncrewed test flight.

A SpaceX Starship rocket disintegrated spectacularly just minutes after liftoff, raising questions about the risks of modern space exploration. The incident caused disruptions in air traffic and highlighted the challenges private space companies face.

A SpaceX Starship rocket broke up in space minutes after launching from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights over the Gulf of Mexico to alter course to avoid falling debris and setting back Elon Musk's flagship rocket program.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made light of Starship's fiery end. "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!" he said on X.

While SpaceX lost the upper stage of its new Starship in a flight test, the futuristic spacecraft presages a spaceflight revolution, says a leading U.S. space scholar.

After exploding, the craft sent blazing debris across the sky and forced multiple aircraft flying over and near the Caribbean to divert.

Dramatic footage showing streaks of light zipping across the sky surfaced online following Elon Musk's Starship explosion over the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites early this morning (Jan. 21), five days after a test flight of the company's Starship megarocket ended in an explosion. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday at 12:24 a.m. EST (0524 GMT).

After the successful booster recovery, SpaceX officials reported losing contact with the spaceship toward the end of the ascend.

SpaceX launched its huge Super Heavy-Starship mega rocket on its seventh test flight Thursday, successfully "catching" the first stage booster back at its firing stand but losing its new-generation Starship upper stage spacecraft, which apparently broke up ...

Starship experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," which is a phrase SpaceX coined to describe an explosion.